Be Happy Anyway

From Brave Girls Club

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Jeg trenger å øve på norsken min.

What does that mean?

"I need to practice my Norwegian." This is true. I want to go to Norway next summer or the next. Why? I don't know. It seems no matter where I turn, I run into something or someone Norwegian. For example, sometimes I click the NEXT button at the top of the screen and almost always it takes me to a Norwegian blogger like the jewlery maker or the scrapbooker. How do I know it is Norwegian? Well many years ago, I met someone from Norway whom I still write to today. (The internet is a wonderful thing.) I thought it would be good to learn Norwegian out of politeness, but it turned into a fascination with everything Norwegian - Travel, Clothing, Language, Geography.

I participate in a photoblogging site where I have "met" two different ladies - Ninaand Linda who are from Trondheim. One even works in an IKEA. After seeing their pictures plus the places I have found on the web, I decided that Norway would not be a bad place to spend a few weeks in the summer.

Other than money, what is my major drawback? The language. I know many speak English there, but I have always found it inconsiderate to visit a country and not know any of the language. So, I have resorted to a translation site and phrase site to learn. I want to buy a program like Rosetta Stone to really learn Norwegian, but I just haven't.

The problem with online translators is that, just like English, Norwegian has many words for one thing. For example, there are two meaning for "Welcome." If you want to welcome someone to your home you would say, "Velkommen," but if you want to say you're welcome after someone thanks you, you should say, "Vær så god!" which doesn't translate to English exactly.

I think that I would need a total immersion to get a better understanding, but where does one get such an experience in a little town in Central Texas?

I just hope when I am trying to give a compliment to one of my new friends that I don't instead say, "Your mother is a goat." Which, by the way, is "Din mor er en geit."

Go for it! I went to Norway on band tour in college and loved it! I didn't learn any Norwegian before I went but we did learn a Swedish song, Thanks for the Food. We always sang the song in English after meals in the US so we learned it in Swedish and sang it on our tour through Sweden and Norway. It is true that many people in Norway speak English-with lovely accents! But, what a great opportunity to learn another language:) Good luck!

About Me

I am a fourth grade teacher. I tend to ramble and a blog seemed like the perfect outlet for it. That way only people who want to hear what I have to say get to listen. You will find that there is no central theme. If you like music, scrapping, art journaling, stories of a mom ready to pull her hair out, you have come to the right place. Welcome to my world.